Police chief: ‘Put CCTV in every home’

Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe also said that homeowners must make efforts to install equipment properly to avoid undermining inquiries.

When the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was asked if business and home owners needed to make greater use of CCTV cameras he said yes, adding: “We’ve got a strategy to encourage people, with their cameras, is to move them down to eye level.”
But the Commissioner warned those buying such devices to be sure to position them correctly.

He said: “Over the last year as facial recognition software has got better we can apply the software to the images of burglaries or robberies and we can compare those images with the images we take when we arrest people.”
“Taking the tops of their heads is not that helpful for facial recognition which relies on the eyes and the configuration of the area around the nose and the mouth. So we’re trying to get people to, ideally, add another camera at face level.”